Jewish Boulder residents talk about the attack in pro-Israel protests
Lisa Turnquist, a Jewish resident of Boulder, used a towel that had to suffocate the flames on an older woman after attacking in Israeli protests.
It bombed Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home in April, hours after the governor and his family hosted more than 20 people to celebrate the first night of Passover. Police records show that the suspected arsonist targeted the governor because of “what he wants to do to the Palestinians.”
Two weeks ago, a man shot and killed a young couple outside the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, and the man cried out. “I did it for Gaza,” he later told investigators.
Then, on June 1, the man threw a Molotov cocktail at a peaceful gathering of pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado. The attackers cried out “Free Palestine” as they set fire to several people, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor.
These violent attacks come after years of escalating rhetoric, protests and demonstrations against the ongoing war in Gaza. A report released last month found that anti-Semitism incidents across the United States hit record highs last year in their fourth year, and that the same researchers are worried about the trends continuing throughout 2025.
The recent wave of attacks shows that Jewish communities across the country are high. There are also experts and analysts studying the anti-Semitism extremist movement that has already flooded online spaces and has embraced several protests on university campuses and elsewhere.
“The Jewish community is used to having bulletproof glass and metal detectors at the agency, but this was a public gathering,” ADL’s senior vice president of counter-expressism and intelligence told USA Today about the Boulder attack. “The Jewish community is now worried about being publicly Jewish.”
Of course, anti-Semitic violence is nothing new in America. The most deadly anti-Semitic attack in American history occurred just seven years ago at The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
We also saw periods of anti-Semitic violence in the 1980s and 90s, including targeted assassinations by white supremacist groups. While the new wave of violence certainly appears to have been inspired by the war in Gaza, there is a noticeable difference between the Washington, DC and Boulder attacks, said Javed Ali, senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council in 2017 and 2018.
The suspect in the Washington, D.C. shootings have been involved in leftist politics and protests recently, but the suspect in the Colorado attack has spent more than a year planning his attack and appears to have not been involved in the protests, Ali said.
“We have seen these waves of anti-Semitic violence throughout modern American history,” Ali said. “Does this present another of these kinds of waves right now? I hope it won’t be bigger than these two attacks.”
‘600+ Years of Rhetoric Day’
In both the Washington attack and the Boulder attack, the assailants cried out about the war in Gaza.
According to a court filing from the FBI, Mohamed Sabri Soliman, the suspect in the Boulder attack, specifically targeted the group due to Israeli stance, saying he “want to do it again.”
Ali said he believes that the more people are angry at the war, the more likely they are to become radical and take violent action. It is usually the way social movements produce violent domestic extremists, Ali said. It’s essentially a number game.
“If there is a larger pool of radicalized people, it could potentially increase the likelihood that fewer people will be pouring into violent behavior from that large radicalized pool.
Segal from ADL placed it differently. He said the protests have consistently and unfairly blurred the line between the Israeli government and the actions of the Jews as a whole. Violence like recent attacks is an inevitable result of that bias, he said.
“If there is more than 600 days of rhetoric that not only opposes Israeli government policies, but also features languages that dehumanize Israelis, Zionists and Jews, these plots and attacks often create a much more likely atmosphere,” Segal said.
The expansion of the security cordon
The events in Colorado and Washington and the arson fire at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in April are part of a pattern in which anti-Israel sentiment is used as justification for anti-Semitic violence, said Harry Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democrat-based group in Washington.
“We saw a deep, troubling pattern and shattered the security we should have as American Jews,” Soifer said.
Synagogues and other Jewish facilities increased their safety after the Tree of Life fired.
Since that attack, those entering the synagogue have usually experienced similar security measures as checkpoints at TSA airports, Soifer said. “You have a device that goes through the magazine and checks your bags,” she said.
However, recent attacks have been largely outdoors, and this requires another layer of security that wasn’t necessarily needed. The group is currently considering ways to create large boundaries around Jewish institutions and gatherings, she said.
“This created a crisis in that all Jewish Americans rethink their security,” Soifer said. “It’s catastrophic to think we’re at the point where we need it, but we are.”
University of Denver students were already worried about the rise of anti-Semitic violence across the country, according to Adam Rovner, director of the university’s Center for Jewish Studies. He said that Boulder’s attacks on marchers have heightened their fear.
“Some people feel frightened, some people feel angry,” Robner said. “Some people feel a determined feeling.”
Robner said when he went to the synagogue on Sunday, members of the congregation were warned not to smash the outside of the building as it was a Jewish holiday in Shabuot and there was a fear of attack.
“They’re doing this,” said Rachel Harris, director of Jewish Studies at Florida Atlantic University.
Harris also has raised concerns that the public tends to normalize terrorism against Jews by attribute it to political protests.
“Other groups targeted by acts of terrorism call them an act of terrorism,” she said. “We don’t try to make it normal. This says it screamed “Free Palestine.”
Everyone has the right to protest and express their views peacefully, Robner said.
“There’s certainly a fear that the Palestinians are suffering,” he said. “There is certainly a fear that the Israelites and Jews are suffering. They don’t cancel each other. They both exist. Those who appear to contain two contradictory opinions in their minds at the same time are those who assault violently. They are idealized with simple minds.”
“We have to push back.”
Twenty-four hours after the attack at Boulder, Lisa Turnkist returned to Pearl Street and placed flowers and a small Israeli flag at a small monument.
Police say Soliman, an Egyptian immigrant who is staying on a visa, threw a Molotov cocktail at the Marchese, screaming “Free Palestine.” Twelve people, ages 52 to 88, suffered burns ranging from serious to minors.
The 66-year-old Turnquist said she was a regular attendee in the snow or glow of the rain, which was Sunday’s march. There, participants will call on Hamas to release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. She had just arrived on June 1st when she saw flames on the woman’s feet.
The Jewish turnkist said he grabbed a towel from the dog Jake’s stroller and used it to suffocate the flames of the elderly woman’s feet.
The Turnquist said they began taking part in a few weeks after the march began following the October 2023 attack by Hamas in Israel.
Her voice alternated in tears and angry, and she replied each week how Walker has faced allegations that Hamas was complicit in the genocide to demand that the hostages be released.
“We just want them to go home, so we do this,” she said.
The morning after the attack she woke up and didn’t want to get out of bed.
But she did.
“This is when we have to get up and get up,” she said, “and we have to push back.”
Contribution: Trevor Hughes
